Jörgenstein
The Jörgenstein is a monument in the Bochum forest " Weitmarer Holz ". The stone - an ice age boulder weighing around six tons made of syenite - is located on a small forest meadow in Weitmarer Holz in the immediate vicinity of the path between Blankensteiner Strasse and the Malakow tower of the former Brockhauser civil engineering mine at the Bliestollen. The stone bears the inscription: “ In memory of the Bochum local writer Georg Breuker . In his fictional character “Jörgen the Bergmann” he described the working world of the people in the Ruhr. "
He is reminiscent of the Bochum local poet Georg Breuker (1876–1964) and his fictional character Jörgen. In his socially critical novel “Jörgen der Bergmann”, Breuker describes the working world of miners in the 18th and 19th centuries. Century and outlines a model of how miners manage their businesses as shareholders themselves for a fairer distribution of profits. Breuker takes up this topic in another novel “Little Robinson”, which is tailored to young readers. In both novels Jörgen discovers that the black stones lying around openly in the Ruhr Valley - the coal - are burning. This serves as a hook for the action, but is only briefly described as a process. In the 350-page book, the discovery of coal does not even take up a page.
In the minds of the population, however, the Jörgenstein stands for the discovery of hard coal itself. Myths and legends surround this topic. However, these cannot be historically proven. There are similar legends in all mining regions of the world. None of them have anything to do with Georg Breuker.
The legend
The "Jörgenstein" swineherd Jörgen discovers the coal
It was a winter evening, a long, long time ago. Jörgen had been tending pigs all day and now wanted to dig a hole to light firewood in it, because in this lousy cold a fire and a warm meal were just the thing to feel good again. Just as Jörgen started digging the fireplace, he saw that one of the pigs had already dug a hole: "Then why dig?", He thought and lit the wood he had previously collected. After the meal he crawled under his blanket by the fire and fell asleep.
When Jörgen woke up in the morning he was astonished not a little; the fire was no longer burning, but the black stones on which he had lit the fire the night before glowed and sparkled in the most beautiful colors and gave off warmth. He could hardly believe it and took these strange black stones for bewitched magic stones; therefore he and his flock left this eerie place.
The next day, however, the same thing happened, again he kindled a fire in a cave dug in front by pigs, there were again these strange black stones, and they glowed again when he woke up in the morning. But now our shepherd was no longer so afraid, took a few of these stones with him into the village and told the amazed people of his great discovery. They wanted to own such miracle stones too, and Jörgen showed them the places where they could be found. Some picked up the stones from the ground, and others dug for them in holes. When they got home, the eager "miners" enjoyed the warming magic stones with which they were able to heat perfectly.
Before, people had used wood for cooking, but the new fuel gave off a lot more heat and was hard as stone, so they called it "coal". One day the message went through the country that the beautiful king's daughter wanted to take the man as her bridegroom who would bring her the most beautiful gems. The swineherd heard about it too and decided to win the hearts of the beautiful. He put a few pieces of coal in a bag and set out on the long way to the magnificent royal palace. After days of hiking, the shepherd finally reached his destination and asked the palace guards to enter. When asked what he wanted, he only replied: "The hand of the king's daughter!" The guards laughed at him, they beat their thighs and pointed with their fingers at the swineherd standing in front of them in dirty and torn clothes. To gain even more amusement, the guards let the shepherd into the castle.
He went straight into the magnificent throne room and saw that many counts, dukes and young princes in the most ornate clothes and with the most precious stones in hand were waiting in a long row to spread their gifts one after the other in front of the beautiful princess can. At last it was the young swineherd's turn and now stood in front of the princess, dirty and tattered, with his black coals in his hand. At this sight she cried out loudly and said: "What are you doing here, you are probably lost, I am in the mood for precious stones!" "Wait a minute," said the shepherd and put the black stones in the fire where they were soon glowed in the most splendid colors, in red, yellow, blue and orange, and spread a pleasant warmth. The princess watched this spectacle in astonishment because she had never seen anything so wonderful.
"These black diamonds are really the most beautiful gemstones!" Said the king's daughter.
A few weeks later the princess and the swineherd married, a big party was celebrated, and both lived happily ever after for many years.
Honor
In addition to the “Jörgenstein” in Weitmarer Holz, another memorial to the shepherd Jörgen was set with the Jörgen portrait on Hattinger Straße / Pieperstraße opposite St. Meinolphus-Mauritius in downtown Bochum.
Coordinates: 51 ° 26 ′ 1.9 ″ N , 7 ° 11 ′ 57.8 ″ E
swell
- Roman "Jörgen the Bergmann" by Georg Breuker, 1954
- The novel “Little Robinson” by Georg Breuker, 1959
Web links
- Hike through the historical mining, Weitmarer Holz, Bochum-Sundern
- Hike / city tour Weitmarer Holz, Bochum-Sundern, Bliestollen, Bochum-Weitmar
- The legend on the net
Individual evidence
- ↑ from: Sondermann, Dirk (2003): Bochumer Sagenbuch, Verlag Pomp, Essen. Page 194ff
- ↑ The legend on the web ( Memento of the original from December 3, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. accessed on December 31, 2008
